


stone silent

by Duck_Life



Series: X-Men Shorties [36]
Category: X-Factor (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Comes Back Wrong, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, X of Swords Aftermath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29934498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Vic tries to get through to Santo... or whatever is left of Santo.
Relationships: Victor Borkowski & Santo Vaccarro
Series: X-Men Shorties [36]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1255247
Kudos: 1





	stone silent

Victor finds Santo— finds  _ Rockslide—  _ finds… whoever— sitting on one of the balconies jutting out from the Boneyard, gazing up at the moon in quiet wonder. He can see Lorna across the room, keeping an eye on him, knows that Trevor’s probably keeping several eyes on him, too. Neither of them tries to interrupt Victor as he approaches. 

“Hey.” He sinks into the bench next to Rockslide, who gives no outward sign that he’s even noticed Vic is there. “Trevor thinks you’re like a baby,” Victor says softly, looking up at the moon instead of at the shell of his best friend. “I don’t know if that’s true. Maybe. Or I think… maybe you’re just hiding? Hiding inside, like you used to.” 

He sighs. The building rattles with noise, people dancing and reuniting and celebrating. Earlier this evening he saw Sofia shotgun a beer, which, he supposes, is as good a way as any to commemorate your resurrection. 

“You used to kinda… go away a little. I remember. And it’s… man, it’s okay if that’s what you’re doing now. If you need to do that to feel safe… it’s okay.” Memories rise up to meet him— Santo, stone-faced in every sense of the word, shutting down for minutes or hours at a time. It started happening after— well, after everything started happening and just kept happening. Limbo. Hope. The dead rising. 

(He thinks, suddenly, of Selene’s puppets, of the bodies and souls she resurrected to serve as her army. He wonders how different they were,  _ really _ , from the mutants all around him. From Sofia, from David, from Alana. From Santo.) 

“I just need to be here,” Victor goes on, grimacing as he feels the tears coming. “I just need to be here, next to you, okay? I just… Man, I really fucking miss you.” 

A tear drips down his cheek and he wants so badly for Santo to laugh at him, to call him a lameass for crying. 

“I’ve been thinking. About… about M-Day, actually. I don’t know, maybe that sounds stupid. I mean, everyone who lost their powers is finally getting them back, so… I was just thinking about that morning.

It was fucking crazy. I woke up normal— I mean, y’know,  _ me _ normal. And then I go out in the hall and everyone’s freaking out— Hydro was dead. Beast had to pull Melody Guthrie off a damn ledge. Weirdest thing was I realized… I realized there were so many kids that I just didn’t recognize. People I’d only ever seen with horns or fur or scales or feathers, and suddenly they were just… Bare. 

I had this kind of like. Survivor’s guilt I guess? I mean, and it was only gonna get worse from there. You know. And I remember trying to ask you about it later, and you said… you said something like, ‘We didn’t make this happen. We don’t need to feel crappy about it, we don’t need to feel good about it. It’s just dumb luck.’ And it  _ did _ make me feel better. 

This is the longest I’ve ever talked without you interrupting me,” Victor says. “It feels wrong. I guess all I’m trying to say is just… I’m here. I love you. I don’t know what happened, or what… but, man, whatever version of you you are? It’s okay. I love whatever ‘you’ you need to be. It’s okay.” 

He desperately waits for Santo to say something stupid in response,  _ Sorry, bro, but I still don’t swing your way _ or  _ Wow, that’s pretty gay, Vic  _ or  _ You’re awfully weepy for the Geico gecko’s cousin _ .

But of course, his best friend remains silent. 


End file.
